We're discontent with our current daycare. Nothing serious to the point of being concerned for safety or anything, but just an environment that has slowly been fostering a growing discontentment of Sharon's & mine over the last number of months since we've started.
The circumstances of our daycare search, if anyone recalls, were not ideal to begin with. After spending the first three months of her life with Momma and the next three with Grandma, Lucy was in a situation where we went through two home daycares (both of which were really, really good situations for her) in the next seven months, as the proprietor of each moved out of town. In the end, the whole experience was more traumatic for Sharon than for Lucy, but nevertheless, consistency is one of the most important things for an infants (and toddlers), and the changes were certainly not what we envisioned for her first year. We were facing a desperate 11th hour search last May before we came up with the place at which we are currently.
There are simply not open lines of communication between us and the providers, which leads to us not getting the information about what's going on day-in and day-out that we want to and, as a result, putting us in what has become an awkward position of prying around, trying to get information every night. We get the idea that other people who use the daycare (none of them really peers) have never really had an expectation that is on par with ours, and it has led to this culture that is really not conducive to parents being involved in and informed on the caregiving. There's other minor little things that we'll notice from time to time that don't sit quite right; none of them very big, individually, but adding up to be a problem, overall.
Anyway, this morning, we had a couple of interviews with new possibilities. The first, a followup visit from a very fortunate reference, was a woman who was really passionate about caring for kids, has been doing it for 20 years, has a really neat set up in and around her house, and is just a lot more generally great than the place we've been (in addition, a little closer and cheaper, which doesn't hurt). After that, we checked out this Montessori school for toddlers and preschoolers that was amazingly cool; the Montessori philosophy is definitely in line with our values (respecting children as thinking people, no TV, lots of construtive, wooden toys, etc.), but not quite in line with our budget. As in, over twice as expensive as the home day care. Montessori is definitely something we'll consider as Lucy approaches school age, but for now it looks like we're going to switch her over to this other lady.
Perhaps more later, but man....such a big, BIG deal, the day care. Needless to say, I'm very excited about the prospect of her being in a better environment.
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5 comments:
A true blessing for my family is having Sarah's mom to watch Jonah everyday for the grand total of $0 a week. I am so glad that we don't have the head and heart ache of finding daycare. Dan, I feel your pain, but I don't fully understand since I am not faced with that particular problem. As a worry wart, I know what it is like to want the best for a child and it is hard to find it at times.
Well, this is potentially a really good situation for her, so things are about to look up by a long shot. But at $100/wk vs. your $0 a week, there's really no comparison.
If Sharon could stay home with Lucy, we'd do that in a heartbeat. That said, there are social aspects (interacting with other kids, etc.) for which I think daycare is valuable, provided the kids that are going there are from backgrounds that are at least in the same universe as hers. I have just a little concern that we are taking Lucy from a situation where she is the only child not of color and moving her to what you'd have to call a very "white" environment.
But the move really has everything to do with the providers, and nothing really to do with the kids. (I guess you could say it has something to do with the parents at the current daycare, in that their expectations of the provider and ours are not really compatible). But as far as families attending this daycare we're going to be going with-although the makeup puts Lucy in that more "white" environment, it's not like they're suburbian families. These are Minneapolis people we're talking about. Folks with peace signs in their yards and stuff like that.
As usual - good luck
Definitely encourage the Montessori idea, at least as far as I know about it - read an article or two. Seems great.
It's totally re-inspired us on the notion of wooden toys.
It is sort of weird. I just finished an article on the woman that started Montessori, an Italian woman trained as a doctor who found her path in education.
Knowing little more than that, the article did say that there are many schools that have the label but don't follow through with the ideas. That may not be a bad thing since I don't know the long term evectiveness.
One interesting thing is the age range within a single classroom - allowing the older students to act as leaders/role models for the younger students. Certainly an interesting idea.
Also, the ability to find your own way of solving whatever problem that may be posed to you. It has a reputation for being structured, but in some ways sounded less structured, at least insofar as everyone doing the same thing.
Worth looking into more.
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